I acquired a Fibre glass Sea kayak last year and after going to Kayak classes through the winter months to learn the basics have been out a few times this year. But it occurred to me that if i wished to go out to sea further and a heavy fog came in i might get lost and that i could do with a deck mounted compass. The problem is that my Kayak has a ridge line which when i bought the Kayak i thought was a good idea as water will shed off the Kayak naturally but it does create an issue for mounting a deck compass as the base of the compass would have to be curved and as much as i look else where on line i cannot come up with a solution to this problem so any advice would be much appreciated.

Failing any better suggestions coming along, I’d be tempted to get a piece of stiff rubber, such as the type that boat trailer rollers are made from and shape the bottom to suit the shape of your ridge line and leave the top flat to mount the compass. You’d then have a choice of drilling and bolting through, gluing or bungeeing ?

Thanks Northern blue as your suggestion made me come up with an idea which is to use a rubber mooring compensator. The thick rectangular ones with a groove in each side and six holes for rope to go through but i will use those holes to attach bungees too instead and should be easy enough to cut to the shape of the Kayak. Just need to get a compass and mount it on the top and that will be me sorted.

Two things to bear in mind about where you position the compass. If it's too close to you, you end up looking down at it, and your eyes focus on the deck; in bad visibility it helps to be focussed further away. If it's too far away, you can't see the numbers, and if you plan to make it demountable (using bungees) you can't reach it from the cockpit. The second point is that it needs to be away from any iron objects, so if you put it on a hatch cover, or above any stowage position, you need to take care how you pack the boat on camping trips.

Do you have a front hatch ? You could mount a compass on to that, I’ve seen that before.

An ordinary map reading compass is better than nothing.

It will sit flat on the spraydeck, tether it to a deck line or any lines on your spray deck.

Hi yes i have a front Hatch cover but the ridge line runs through it so it is not a flat hatch which a compass can be mounted on. I am going to stick with my original idea and shape one side of the mooring compensator (i use the same compensator but on a bigger scale for my 25ft boat mooring lines) to the shape of the Kayak ridge line and then either glue,silicone etc the Silva 58 compass to the compensator and then run the bungees to the deck lines and or glue the compass to the compensator and then drill holes in the compensator to attach the bungees to and then to the deck line.

I am not going to be short of Compasses lol as i will have the Silva 58 deck mounted Compass for Kayak navigation my Silva wrist diving Compass as a back up and a field compass in the waterproof map bag for on land then my Standard Horizon HX851E Marine Radio which if any severe problems and as a last resort for me or other boats that may be in distress etc i can just press the distress button which sends out the Satellite co ordinates of my location to the Coastguard

Changed my mind a and bought a 160mm boating trailer snubber block.
Drilled two countersink holes on the inner side towards the corners of the Snubber for the bungee elastic knots to sit in so the Snubber sits flush on the Kayak.
Threaded the bungees through and roughened up the flat section of the Snubber with sand paper so the adhesive can grip to it.
Glued the Silva 58 Compass to the flat section of the Snubber using 3m Marine adhesive.
Attached it to the Deck lines and double checked that the Compass was giving the correct reading.